


Adrift and working out our bearings

by Dibleopard



Category: The Island (2005)
Genre: Ackerman Four Alpha, Also mentioned are Tom Lincoln and the President's snippy clone, Dumb clones, Food mention, Gen, Memory Issues, The Renovatio, cause he doesnt have a canon name, lincoln 6 echo is a dumbass, mention of riots, on lincoln's part, whom we have named
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-28
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-14 18:27:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29050632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dibleopard/pseuds/Dibleopard
Summary: Lincoln should probably have made sure his borrowed memories regarding sailing were more stalwart than they were. Oh well.
Relationships: Lincoln 6 Echo & Jordan 2 Delta
Kudos: 2





	Adrift and working out our bearings

**Author's Note:**

> Alternative title: "Surely boats are just cars with extra steps?"
> 
> These guys just kinda,,, vibed off with a boat and no experience. Why? Because Lincoln saw it in a dream. What a guy. Real Anakin energy, that's all I'm saying.

The _Renovatio_ had something akin to a steering wheel that felt intuitive enough to use but was entirely nameless in Lincoln’s mind. Similarly, there was a lever that he knew lowered an anchor but he wasn’t sure exactly what that meant or when he should use it.

Sometimes he stood in the cabin filled with various controls and stared at them, willing muscle memory to materialise the way it had when he launched the boat from the harbour. This was rarely successful and on the occasions that Jordan found him there it caused more worry than reassurance.

It wasn’t that he wanted to _lie_ to her, it’s just that admitting that his skills as a sailor were patchy at best (nonexistent at worst) was the sort of conversation starter that was unfortunate while stuck on a boat surrounded by ocean and little else. The two of them hadn’t got into any fights in their time, at least not verbally, and this struck him as the wrong time to steer them into dangerous waters. Metaphorically. Although he may also end up doing it physically, if he couldn’t work out the various nautical maps that he’d found on their second day at sea.

Perhaps more pressingly, the issue of food had made itself apparent on the first night and had been gradually wearing at the edges of their minds. Tom Lincoln had kept enough canned and dry stuff on the boat and in his cupboards to last them two weeks but a week of unnervingly sweet spaghetti from bright yellow cans interspersed with unnervingly chewy spaghetti that they still hadn’t managed to cook properly was hardly an ideal situation.

Maybe they would have been better off on land…

“Hey, did you hear about the Replicant Riots?” asked Jordan, swinging around the door and onto the deck where he was contemplating the probably significant combination of rope and important-looking metal loops.

“The what-what?”

“That’s what I thought.” Jordan had spent most of the last week reading. Sometimes it was books, other times she would exclaim loudly about data roaming and haul a laptop out to plug into the wall before reading the internet for as long as the connection lasted. Occasionally she would manhandle the aerial until the television got a decent picture and they’d watch what they could bear until someone ‘accidentally’ knocked the aerial back out of alignment while on a brief check on the ship readings.

“Apparently people don’t like the idea of having clones that are indistinguishable from their sponsors in case the world’s most rich and powerful get killed and replaced by us.”

Lincoln kept his gaze on the water and tried not to sound too defensive. “Sounds unrealistic.”

Jordan snorted. “Yeah, right. Anyway, there’s a whole bunch of science fiction about cloning and stuff like that which has people riled up. Some of them say that we should be hunted down and ‘retired’ like in this one story where androids that look human get killed in case they go rogue.”

“What’s an android?”

“Not sure, the connection failed before I could check. Think it’s just a type of clone, like us. They were called replicants so it makes sense.”

It did make sense. At least to the extent that any of it made sense.

“So they’re just going to kill us like the Institute? Send another set of people after us?”

By this point, Jordan’s gaze was also stuck to the water. He wondered if she too was beginning to feel nauseous from it.

“Maybe. It looked like it was just small groups going out causing chaos to get attention; the government still hasn't sorted anything out. I think the president is worried, though. About having a clone. Lots of people are worried about his clone, honestly. May sway the vote, if there is one.”

“I’d be worried too, if Ackerman Four Alpha could end up in charge.”

Jordan gave him an amused, knowing look, “You just have something personal against the guy.”

“Damn right I do!” he exclaimed, indignantly, “Any time I go near him he takes shots at me.”

Jordan grinned, “Well, I’m sure if you just smiled more…”

“I swear he doesn’t even know my name,” said Lincoln, smiling despite himself, “It’s always ‘tough guy’ with him. Sarcastically too!”

“Sounds like an excellent judge of character; I’d vote for him.”

Lincoln gave her a light shove in mock outrage. “You won’t have to if he steals the presidency from his sponsor.”

“If that happens, name calling will be the least of our problems.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

The conversation faded into the sound of the water lapping against the boat. The boat that could take them away from everything, for the good or the bad. The one he didn’t know how to sail. That boat. For something he knew before he’d ever laid eyes on it, the _Renovatio_ was frustratingly difficult to manage. Or maybe that was just reality, who was to say?

“So do you think we should try to head for land?” He asked, eventually. “Is it safe?”

“I dunno. Safe as it’ll get before the food goes off, I suppose. How long will it take to get there?”

Lincoln attempted to affect the confidence of someone who knew what he was doing. Tom Lincoln’s confidence, if he was honest, though he managed to keep the accent in check. “Hard to say. One or two days, maybe.”

“Best start now then.”

“Right.”

She shifted with the pitch of the boat and then made to return to the cabins.

“Jordan?”

“Yes, Lincoln?”

“Next time you have a connection, could you work out how nautical maps work? And what a knot is? Like on a reading.”

“I thought you knew how to sail this thing?”

“I do, I just want to check. To be certain. That I know. Which I do.”

Jordan rolled her eyes, “Sure thing, _tough guy._ ”

He half-glared at her back as she left, ignoring the smile he could feel on his face.

The ropes and metal loops were for docking, he remembered. The harbour would have its own metal loops or posts to tether the boat to. Now, if only he could work out how to tie the ropes...

**Author's Note:**

> Don't ask me about the tone I was going for cause it changed halfway through anyway shoutout to the groupchat for deciding to call the president jeffrey didnt use it here but we all needed the information  
> ok thats my thursday rendered productive im going to bed


End file.
